Week Of 7/11; Toms over Nike; Prime Day; Pokemon Go

These shootings. Man. There are those moments when you don’t know what to say about what you’re watching. You don’t understand it. And it hurts your brain, your heart…basically every part of you to think about what you’re watching. To try and comprehend what you’re watching. To try and explain to your 10-year-old kid why their friends are talking about shootings…as easily and consistently as they’d talk about the newest episode of Teen Titans.

I keep politics and social issues out of this newsletter, for the most part, because there are many more sites and voices more qualified and practiced at talking on those matters than I am. However, your views on anything shouldn’t matter when it comes to what we’ve watched in our country over the past week. Months. Year. The only view you need to have is one of compassion.

This week’s stories, which seem so trivial in light of last week’s stories, are below:

1. Millennials like Toms more than Nike. Toms is valued at $625M. Which is under 20% of Nike’s annual marketing budget. But millennials value something more than money and marketing: creating and supporting a world they believe in.

4. Kale just won marketing.Save your hot dogs, there is now a kale eating competition. The Kale Yeah! Eating competition.

5. Ever hear of LA’s Skyslide? It’s what it sounds like. An all glass slide that is on the side of a skyscraper, 1,000 feet high and 45 feet long. And thanks to Instagram we can watch people laugh, freak out and even pee their pants riding it.